No Strings
by Roneve
Summary: When Macie ended up stumbling upon a century's old secret in the form of living puppets, she never assumed that she'd end up with them for the long haul, nor that they would even want her as their master. With six new pint-sized roommates Macie's life was now anything but normal, but she wouldn't trade it for the world. A series of small oneshots/drabbles. AU
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: sup it's time to take everything you know about the puppet master series and THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW! this is just a series of blurbs? Drabbles? Oneshots? About a young puppet master and her life with everyone's favorite puppet squad lmao. Lots of fun and fluff and maybe some accidental murder and angst who knows. I just needed more puppet love in my life and if no one else is gonna make it I guess I have to try my hand at it. If I get anything wrong with the details of the series it's because I just Do Not Care At All and I'm certain the maker of the films doesn't either, so let's just call this an AU, thank you very much.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the puppet master series (but i wish someone else did)**

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 **Sweet Dreams  
*****

The sound of a soft thud hitting the carpet beside her bed woke Macie with a jolt, her body suddenly on high alert as she stared out into the darkness of her room. Upon hearing the sounds of grumbles mixed with breathy laughs and what some would consider _snores_ from the shelf by her door she felt her body fill with ease as she realized there was no threat, since if there was one what she'd be hearing would be _a lot_ different. She blinked to adjust her eyes to the dark and moved to lay back down to sleep, until movement from the floor caused her to pause. Her eyes finally finding the source of the thud as they settled on the painted blue eyes that stared up at her.

Macie sighed, leaning over the bed to turn on the lamp next to her, taking notice of the big red numbers on her clock displaying 3:45 AM before peering back down at the puppet that watched her, its face set into one of worry.

"What's up, Jester? Bad dreams?" Macie asked. Her thoughts were confirmed when the puppet nodded, the sound of jingles from the bells on his hat accompanying his answer.

"You know," she mused, "It was pretty surprising to me when I found out that you guys could even dream, let alone have nightmares. But I guess I shouldn't be so shocked- since, you know, living puppets and all that." Macie was surprised to find out that the little joker was prone to nightmares after one very distressing night of waking up to the sounds of panicking puppets trying to soothe him from his bad dreams. After some attempts at explaining the situation from Blade (said explanation coming in the from a multitude of hissing sounds and wild arm gestures) she caught on, realizing that there were a lot of things she had yet to learn about the puppets as their newfound master.

Leaning over from the comfort of her blankets she carefully picked the puppet up off of the floor, placing him next to her on the pillow and rolling over to face him. "You can stay here for the night, okay?"

Jester's face spun to change into one of happiness, the sound of giggling escaping his unmoving mouth as he snuggled into the pillow.

Resisting the urge to smile, Macie poked his wooden cheek with her finger. "Yeah, yeah- get comfy you goofball. You're just lucky that I know I'm not gonna have an incident with you like I did that one time with Blade. I don't feel like getting impaled in the face by accident in the middle of the night, thank you very much."

A loud hiss came from the other end of the room as soon as she finished speaking, causing her to laugh. "Sorry, Blade."

Jester let out a giggle as his leaned his face away from hers, making a few various laughing noises that Macie assumed were meant in a mocking manner directed at Blade before moving back down onto the pillow, his face now practically smushed against her hair as he got comfortable.

"God, you're so spoiled."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This is so late but I had the first half of it written for months and only just now got around to finishing it because i am just the Worst**

 **+to the people who reviewed- i love you!**

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 **Morning, Sunshine**

Mornings are best when taken slowly. Some might even say that a stressful morning could lead to a stressful day, and that easing yourself into the day is the best way to wake up. Those people are probably right, but when you've got six living puppets as your roommates, peaceful mornings are out of the question.

Hell, they don't even pay rent.

"Six Shooter, please. For the last time, no trying to shoot the mailman" Abandoning her half-eaten breakfast, Macie made her way across the room, crouching down to pull the cowboy away from the window with a huff. "How many times do I have to tell you, no target practice inside; and especially no trying to shoot random people on the street! There will be no murdering mailmen on my watch, alright?"

A disappointed " _heh..."_ sound came from the puppet, and with months of experience dealing with the strange language barrier between her and the puppets, it was enough for Macie to know that he understood what she had said. The rowdy puppet was usually on pretty good behavior, except for his minor trigger happy tendencies and paranoia when it came to strangers coming near his young master.

Setting Six Shooter down _away_ from the window, she watched as he put all six of his guns back into their respective holsters- albeit a bit reluctantly- and made his way over to the five puppets that were settled almost _too_ comfortably on the couch, various DVD's scattered around them as they all focused on the machete-wielding man on the screen.

Macie ran a hand through her hair as she observed the sight before her, taking a moment to watch the puppets that stuck out like a sore thumb in her tiny apartment. It looked like something straight out of a messed up cartoon. But this was reality, not a cartoon, and despite the many times that the girl had to pinch herself just to see if he wasn't having some kind of prolonged fever dream, Macie was undoubtedly harboring a group of animated puppets who had a penchant for causing chaos whether they realized it or not.

The relaxed state of the group displayed before her was quite different in comparison to how they acted only just a few months ago when Macie's apartment was uncharted territory for them. When she had first brought the group to life they were all on edge. Macie, because she assumed that she was now destined to be the star in her own horror movie and get murdered in her sleep by the supposedly "cursed" puppets that she'd found in a trunk on the side of the road buried under a foot of snow, and the puppets themselves who, for some reason unbeknownst to her, all seemed on edge for those first few months.

When they found out it was Macie who brought them to life warmed up to her quite fast, but when it came to strangers, and even the sound of footsteps from the apartment above her, it had them pulling out weapons and swarming around her. It made her uncomfortable at first, but when she realized that they were doing it to protect _her_ of all people, she decided to just gently reprimand them and remind them that there was no threat.

But now looking at the scene in front of her it made her wonder; what were they so worried about when they were brought to life? What danger did they know of that she didn't? It made her think of how mysterious their background was, as all that could give her some clues as to what the deal with them was were notebooks full of German writing that her translating app on her phone couldn't decipher, and a bunch of scientific formulas and math equations that looked way too complicated for the girl who still needed a calculator to do basic multiplication.

She had enough sense to recognize that the journals dated as far back as the 30's, and various items and posters pointed to the puppets being made in WWII time by a man named Andre Toulon. She probably should've looked into it further, but in her defense, she wasn't entirely focused on the "how" portion, more on the "why" factor. Why would someone make puppets that could come to life? Why puppets?

It was stupid to not at least search the name Toulon up online, and with innate curiosity eating away at her she knew it wouldn't be long before she caved, but part of her was scared of what she would find. The puppets had been nothing but kind to her, sometimes it was a little frustrating when they caused trouble, but nothing too bad; but what if that wasn't the case before now? What if she'd find that she really did pick up a box of murdering puppets off the side of the road?

She shook her head, attempting to rid herself of the thoughts in her head and looked away from the scene in front of her, making her way back to her breakfast that she'd probably have to reheat at this point. She would give in and do some research on the origins of the bunch eventually, but for now, ignorance was bliss.

Okay, maybe not bliss. But it was something.

Whether they were evil or not was a question Macie couldn't give a clear answer on. But if there was one thing she was sure of, it was that the puppets made peaceful mornings impossible, and Macie would be lying if she said that was a bad thing.

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 **A/N: *clenches fist* I just... love that tiny murderous cowboy.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: *shows up almost a year late with a doozy of a oneshot* I love to be consistent :']**

 **P.S: thank you so much to those who have reviewed, favorited, and followed this story. It means a lot!**

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 **Uninvited Guest**

Home is where the heart is, and in Macie's case her heart resided wherever the rent was cheap and the commute was short. Despite the fact that it left much to be desired in terms of quality and wasn't in the best of neighborhoods, Macie still loved her apartment- cheap rent and all. It served its purpose of giving her a roof over her head, and only sometimes did a person actually attempt to break in during the middle of the night.

Though, in much rarer of an occasion, did someone actually _succeed_ in the task, and unfortunately for Macie, it seemed only fitting that such an ordeal would unfold the night before exam week.

If there was one thing Macie hated more than exams, it was having to endure the endless amount of studying that came before them. Spending valuable time hunched over a stack of textbooks and staying up till ungodly hours of the night wasn't her favorite pastime. And after going to bed at a ridiculous hour, being rudely awoken from slumber at an even _more_ ridiculous hour was the nail in the coffin. As Macie's eyes snapped open at 3:42 AM at the sound of a loud thud in her living room, she debated even getting up to check the source of it. Exams were pretty terrible after all; if someone wanted to murder her and save her the trouble of having to study some more, could she really complain?

She strained to hear for any more noise as she lay awake. When she heard nothing else substantial aside from a minor thump here and there, she briefly considered the source of the noise to just be the puppets. She wouldn't be so patronizing as to call them _trained_ , but they were pretty well behaved most of the time aside from a few stray incidents. However, keeping track of them was hard sometimes, and she couldn't be sure of what they were doing during the hours when she was asleep. The last time one decided to cause a ruckus in the middle of the night, she had found Blade in the living room discovering how to work the surround sound speakers for the first time; much to the dismay of her poor ear drums that suffered the brunt of his discovery.

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, sighing as she did so. If it really was them she'd probably have to make sure they weren't doing something that could only be fixed with a fire extinguisher or an exorcist. She begrudgingly sat up, hoping that she could simply reprimand the puppets and then be off to bed once more.

Sadly, things were never that easy, and when she sat upright and stared out into the darkness of her bedroom, she felt the color drain from her face when she locked eyes with her puppets atop her dresser, their bright beady eyes staring directly at her as they stood as alert as ever.

Her mind was starting to work a little quicker now, exasperation and exhaustion being replaced with the feeling of unease at the idea that someone else could possibly be in her apartment outside of her and her six miniature sized roommates. She raised a single finger up to her lips to silence the puppets before they had the chance to make a sound, her other hand going back to the side of her bed to grab the faded wooden bat that sat wedged between her nightstand. She tip-toed her way over to the dresser and carefully placed each puppet onto the floor, each one finding themselves a spot in front of her feet, weapons and fists at the ready.

Another loud clatter could be heard from outside her room, and she faltered away from the door slightly. The realization that someone was actually in her apartment settled like a pile of bricks in the pit of her stomach. She couldn't call the police unless she left her bedroom, seeing as her cellphone was in her bag, and her bag was in the kitchen; along with the only landline in her apartment. And she couldn't just let whoever was robbing her to get away, could she? Her job at the campus library was enough to afford her a diet of _Diet Coke_ and boxed macaroni and cheese; everything else in her apartment were items she took from home or gifts her family had given to her so that she could at least feel like she wasn't just living in a glorified cardboard box. Her laid back attitude could only get her so far, she told herself, and her being tired wasn't a good enough reason to just lie back down and allow someone to steal her stuff.

"Stand back, guys." she whispered as softly as she could manage, glancing down at the group at her feet. they did as she asked, stepping behind her with some hesitation. Blade gave her a look akin to disbelief. The knife that was attached where a hand should've been pointed to the door, and he looked back up at her, as if to remind her of the dangers that could be right outside of her door. She appreciated his protectiveness, but she shooed him back anyway, allowing him to wave her off with an air of frustration as he went. Bracing herself, she gripped her bat tight with one hand, counted to three in her head, and swung her bedroom door open at lightning speed, making a run for the kitchen and practically slipping onto the floor in her socks as she went. Her sudden fearlessness shocked not only her, but the puppets who she had left in the dust back in her bedroom.

There was a large man in her living room, his back turned to her as he stood over her TV stand while trying to pull its wires out of the wall. The sound of her bedroom door hitting against the wall as she opened it caused him to whip around, and she could just see his eyes widen through the black ski mask he wore as he took sight of her form as she stumbled behind the kitchen island, grabbing the phone off the wall while she ducked down behind the counter.

Catching her breath, she willed her voice to not shake as she spoke, doing her best to sound unbothered by the intruder. "It's rough out there, I get it, I really do. So I'll give you 5 seconds to get the _fuck_ out of my apartment before I call the cops, deal?"

She could hear his heavy footfalls nearing towards the counter, and at the the sound of a gun being cocked, the bat in her hand felt awfully useless. "I don't think you're in a position to make such a threat, lady."

She should've just stayed in bed, she thought bitterly to herself as she clutched the bat closer to her chest, listening to the sound of the floor creak under the burglar's frame as he got closer. Would now be a fitting time to say a prayer? She wondered briefly how likely her chances were of getting into heaven- just before the sound of jingling took her focus away from her thoughts.

Wait, jingling?

Her eyes widened when she realized where- no, _who_ the sound was coming from. Jester! She nearly let out a laugh as the sudden ridiculous of the situation set in. She knew it wasn't the proper time to be joking about such a thing, but the lack of sleep mixed with panic and fear left her with a distorted view of what was and wasn't funny. Perhaps it was the morbid acceptance of the fact that she was possibly going to die getting to her, or maybe it was the fact that it seemed that her knights in shining armor were going to be the same blood thirsty puppets that slept on her dresser and tried to mail her ex-boyfriend a dead rat in her honor.

"You have a cat or something?" she heard him scoff, "Maybe you want me to make an example of your pet, huh?"

"Not a pet," she said lightly. Feeling a little calmer and a bit braver, she pulled herself up from behind the counter in the same moment as the puppets rounded around the corner, facing both her and the robber. Gun or no gun, she was pretty sure she had the upper hand now. His jaw dropped, and a bewildered look in his eyes appeared as he watched the puppets move freely, and straight towards him. "Something that might just make an example of _you_ instead."

"What the fuck is going on here?" The robber stumbled back in confusion, waving his gun in the air between Macie, who was now out of hiding and holding her trusty bat in one hand and the landline in the other; and the puppets, who continued to stalk towards the man as if they were the predators and he was the prey that was on its last leg. Macie could hear the quaking of his voice through the material of his mask and assumed he would give up, but he refused to falter. He pulled his attention away from the puppets, instead choosing to aim his gun to her face. He spoke again, and she tried not to smile when his voice cracked. "Is this some kind of trick? Do you really think I'm playing around here, bitch?"

Before he could even decide to pull the trigger or not, he let out a cry, the gun dropping from his hands as he fell to the floor and grabbed at the back of his ankle. Blood was gushing through his fingers as he cursed in pain and pushed his body backwards, attempting to use his other foot to kick away Blade, who was making his way towards the masked man's face, his knife dripping blood.

Part of her just wanted Blade to get it over with and kill him, and that scared her a little. She knew that if they let him live there was no doubt that he would eventually tell someone about what he saw here tonight. And if he didn't, there was a likely chance that he would just rob someone else, and that other person might not be harboring a bunch of murderous puppets to act in their defense. But she wouldn't allow herself to cross that bridge if she didn't have to, and she really didn't want to spend the unforeseeable future living in an apartment where a guy got murdered in the middle of it. Gross, right?

She knew what she had to do. Squaring her shoulders; her expression turned as emotionless as she could make it under the circumstances. She stared him down from across the counter as he frantically looked away from Blade and up at her a pleading expression in his watering eyes.

"Listen, buddy. If you'd like to get out of here alive, you'll tone it down a notch." She let the bat slip from her fingers, abandoning it and the phone on the counter and making her way over to the man, watching as his eyes flickered over his gun that lay in front of her. "And I sincerely doubt that gun will save you." He looked almost queasy now, and the living puppets that stalked closer to him in his peripheral vision probably weren't helping.

She picked up the aforementioned gun that was too far from his reach for him to grab without being noticed and leveled it directly between his eyes, like he had done to her only moments ago. "I've never killed someone before, and I don't want to start now. So maybe this is incentive to heed my words carefully." She let her finger linger over the trigger, with just enough pressure to make him squirm. "If I flunk my exam today because of you, I'll make sure my friends here have your goddamn head on a platter before I even get home. And trust me when I say that if they get their hands on you, you'll be begging for me to put a bullet in your brain."

The drill on Tunneler's head started to spin at Macie's warning, the whirring noise cutting through the tension like a knife. She dropped the gun, and the sound of it hitting the floor mixed with the noise coming from Tunneler was enough to send the large man scrambling backwards off the floor and out the door, tripping over his feet as he ran from the apartment and into the night. Macie let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, moving sluggishly over to the door and leaning against it as she shut it once more. She frowned when she realized he had left her with four broken locks and a cracked door frame.

"God, maybe I should've let you guys kill him." Macie couldn't help but smile as the sound of the drill atop Tunneler's head starting up again, as if he were willing to walk out the door and go after the robber as soon as she gave him the go ahead.

She didn't, of course. Despite her exhaustion and the stress that laid heavy on her shoulders, she still had _some_ moral obligations to uphold; even if that meant coming out of such a dire situation with no sleep and a broken door and no revenge and possibly a failing grade on the exam that she still had to take in the morning...

Damn, being the bigger person really did suck.

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 **A/N: If you're nitpicky (like i am) you probably know that dropping a literal fully loaded gun on the floor is a no-no! but this is fiction and it's not that deep lol.**

 **AND SINCE I'M HERE did you know that in atlanta there's a puppet museum? i went there last year (just a few weeks after my last update!) for my birthday and while there were no tiny murderous toulon puppets (sorry blade) i was actually crying with how amazing it was. i really do love puppets yall and you should too.**

 **also, for whoever is even reading this- do you have anything in particular you'd like to see in a chapter/oneshot? I have a list of ideas for future chapters but I'd love to get some more ideas and know what you'd like to read! For consistencies sake, the puppets that reside with macie are Blade, Jester, Pinhead, Tunneler, Six Shooter and Torch :] so requests will have to be limited to them if you're looking for something specific! I might somehow add leech woman to the puppet squad macie has going on just because wow what a gal.**


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